Resource Efficiency in the EU Feed and Livestock Sector
The new President of FEFAC is Patrick Vanden Avenne is partner and C.E.O. of Vanden Avenne Group in Ooigem, Belgium. Mr Avenne succeeds to Mr Pedro Corrêa de Barros, who had been the FEFAC President since 2007. In his inaugural speech addressing the FEFAC delegates at the 53rd General Assembly in Hamburg, Mr Patrick Vanden Avenne presented his program for a pro-active strategic working plan for the European compound feed industry 2010-2013.
On Sustainable Agriculture and the CAP Reform beyond 2013, he stressed the need to strengthen the competitiveness of EU livestock production. He highlighted that the European livestock and feed sector need to produce more, better with less. Patrick Vanden Avenne stated that “resource efficiency was the key driver of our industry. We will pursue the development of precompetitive R&D projects leading to the adoption of new feed technology and feed formulation strategies seeking to further improve feed efficiency. This has been the key motivation for our General Assembly to approve a new mission statement on FEFAC’s role regarding R&D and innovation”.
FEFAC is fully committed to contribute to the key objective of the EU 2020 agenda on resource efficiency and a greener economy by actively supporting European and global sustainable development platforms such as the Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS) and the EU Food Round Table on Sustainable Consumption and Production, SCP. This also comprises both the development of and support to EU and FAO research projects aiming at reducing the environmental impacts of feed and livestock production.
He welcomed the FEFAC Council adoption of the European transitional import standard for responsible soy based on four core criteria of the RTRS standard as a milestone to foster mainstream market solutions for the production of sustainable soy.
On marketing and use of feed, he underlined FEFAC’s call for the early adoption of the EU feed materials catalogue comprising 400 new product entries at EU level. The catalogue was developed by 39 European feed sector organisations and is the cornerstone of the new co-regulation approach laid down in the new EU Regulation on marketing and use of feed. It is a “living” milestone document improving the market transparency for farmers and feed business operators.
Mr Patrick Vanden Avenne committed himself to pursue an open dialogue with all stakeholders of the food and feed chain to ensure the competitiveness of the EU livestock economy while providing solutions to customer needs regarding compound feed production and production of animal products
The following Members of the FEFAC Praesidium were elected to support Mr Avenne in his task:
• Aurelio SEBASTIÁ AGUILAR, Deputy President (CESFAC, Spain)
• Giordano VERONESI, VERONESI (ASSALZOO, Italy)
• Helen RAINE, ABAgri (AIC, UK)
• Marek KUMPRECHT, TROUW Nutrition (CMSO, Czech Republic)
• Dietrich SCHWIER, Deutsche Tiernahrung, Cremer Group (DVT, Germany)
• Adolphe THOMAS, Treasurer (SNIA, France)
• Ad HECTORS, CEHAVE (NEVEDI, The Netherlands)
• Torben HARRING, DLG (DAKOFO, Denmark)
